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Amanda Renteria, shown here in 2008, played basketball at Stanford before entering a career in politics.

Amanda Renteria found her calling in politics after she graduated in 1996 from Stanford, where she played third base for the softball team and walked on to the basketball team.

She received an MBA from Harvard and pursued public service, working for Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Debbie Stabenow. In 2008, Renteria was named Stabenow's chief of staff, making her the first Latina to hold that title in Senate history. In 2014, she decided to run for Congress herself in California's 21st district, but she lost to Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao. Most recently, Renteria served as the national political director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Throughout her career, Renteria never strayed far from sports. She regularly played pick-up basketball while on The Hill (even putting up a few shots while in heels), and she says softball games between offices can get quite competitive.

Before participating in espnW's Campus Conversation at Stanford on Monday, Renteria spoke with us about sports, how she got into politics and what she's learned along the way.

espnW: How did you first start playing basketball?

Amanda Renteria: I grew up in a small, rural town, so we always had a basketball court available as one of the free things to do. It was kind of what people did: hang out at the courts. For me, I always have had a hard time watching sports -- I want to be in it. So that's kind of how it started, a bunch of kids were at the courts, and I said, "I could do this too."

espnW: At what point in your life did you feel drawn to politics?

AR: I studied politics when I was at Stanford. I got there when it was "The Year of the Woman." But I can't say it was politics as much as I linked it to leadership. Women leaders were breaking through, and the forum at that moment was the Senate. That was what pulled me into having my major be political science, but then, I didn't think about it as politics. It was women making ground in leadership, and I found that to be really interesting.

My whole window into politics was, how do we use public services to do the most public good? After I graduated from business school, that's what I was looking for when I went to go work for the City of San Jose. The experience I was having on the front lines in the budget office and in community centers made me realize the impact and strength of public services. They touch people's lives in a way that I had never experienced before. That was when I realized the importance of who leads and how their proposals touch people.

espnW: What lessons from your athletic career do you carry with you in your political one?

AR: The first is the teamwork aspect of it. In order to make anything in politics work, you need a diverse skill set. You need your communications people, your political people, you need your policies, so that was No. 1 on every campaign. You have to have a diverse team that works together.

The second, and I think this has been true of life in general, is that experience of being two down, and the ball is in your hand, or there's no time left and you're at the free throw line. What that feels like, and having to perform at that very moment. Every single time I give a big speech, whether I was a surrogate, or I'm on TV, or I was doing my own debates, having done that so many times, you know what it feels like. You also know how to visualize and be comfortable in those high pressure moments.

The last thing is knowing how much it takes to be good at what you do -- all the practice that you put in every single day before game day. That discipline to know that if you put in the hours, if you build relationships early, when it's time for it all to come through, you can get into the batter's box with confidence that you did all the prep work and practice.

espnW: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as you ended your collegiate athletic career and transitioned into professional life?

AR: I missed pushing my body physically. To this day, it's why I love playing pick-up basketball. Especially today, in a world where we are always doing multiple things at the same time, when I'm playing pick-up basketball, there's only one thing I can be doing, and that's playing basketball. There aren't a lot of things where you're so singularly focused. People say basketball is hard and tiring, and I think it's so simple because it's clear that I'm just trying to put a ball into a basket. Life and work is so much harder.

The other piece that you just miss is friends and teammates and the collective group trying to reach a goal. When you first start a job, it's not automatic. You're not all on the same page. Everyone starts their job with different incentives and different reasons for being there, but it takes time for people to gel. For me, it took some time to realize that.

And then there's this realization that I'm not going to be on the court anymore. You're in a suit and you're at your desk, and you realize that your hightops are going to get dusty. Everything feels so different and you realize that you had something special. You're entering a new phase of your life, not just that sports is over, something has changed.

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Hillary Clinton's former political director on transitioning from college sports to public service - ESPN

Digital Editor: The Rise of Modesty Chic

Is modesty making a comeback? If the recent trend spearheaded by Muslim womens fashion is any indication yes. Burberry, DKNY, and other brands have released special Ramadan collections, Siraj Datoo writes at Bloomberg. Uniqlo has a line trumpeting traditional values. And a modest fashion show was held in London during Fashion Week. Perhaps we should be most surprised it took this long, says Datoo: In 2015, Muslim women are estimated to have spent $44 billion on modest fashion alone, according to a Thomson Reuters report. And its not just Muslims. I think we need to take Muslim out of it, popular Islamic fashion blogger Dina Torkia told Datoo. Im pretty sure every religion promotes modesty.

Investigative Journo: Media Ignores Clintons Russia Ties

Its certainly legitimate to look into Team Trumps ties to Russia, writes investigative reporter Peter Schweizer at Fox News. But the media focus throughout the campaign on Donald Trump contrasts sharply with the lack of such attention to Hillary Clintons own troubling Russia ties. For starters, Schweizer notes, Bill and Hillary Clinton received large sums of money directly and indirectly from Russian officials while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. Then theres the fact that the Clinton Foundation also scored $145 million in donations from nine shareholders in a Canadian uranium company ... sold to the Russian government in 2010. That deal, which ended up providing the Russians with 20 percent of US uranium, was approved by Hillarys State Department. Then theres John Podesta, who joined the board of an energy company just before a fund started by Vladimir Putin put millions in it.

From the Right: Now Liberals Miss Dubya

When George W. Bush criticized President Trumps attacks on the press, liberals from The Washington Post to The Guardian to ThinkProgress leapt to praise the 43rd president, notes Kim Strassel at The Wall Street Journal though only in the most self-serving way. Indeed, Strassel reminds readers of the excesses of Bush Derangement Syndrome while he was in office: He was compared to Hitler and terrorists, accused of racism, homophobia and sexism. Liberals claimed he was out to rip off the nations old and poor. He orchestrated conspiracies ranging from 9/11 to the spread of avian flu. Of course, as Strassel writes, none of this was true, but the goal of the media and the left from the start of the Bush presidency was to demonize and delegitimize the man and his agenda. That theyre now cynically using Bush to do the same to Trump should give pause.

Conservative Take: Campus Loonies Hurting Themselves

Four decades after City Journals Myron Magnet stopped teaching at Vermonts Middlebury College, the students shouted down a speech by conservative intellectual Charles Murray, showing the anti-intellectualism there hasnt abated. But the students will likely regret this one, says Magnet: As Murray argues in his most recent book, White American is split: There are the Middlebury kids and their ilk: moneyed, well-credentialed and the high-school grads or dropouts, whose low-skilled jobs have vanished, who either never marry or get divorced. It was the arrogance and entitlement of that first group that led the second to elevate Donald Trump to the presidency and threaten the elite status these Americans take for granted. So enjoy your run down the mountain today, students of Middlebury, Magnet warns. Nothing lasts forever.

Lawmakers: Crack Down on Iran-al Qaeda Nexus

The Obama administration appeased Iran, argue Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Michael McCaul, both Texas Republicans, in USA Today. And now President Trump should reverse that trend. He should designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah and Hamas, but Tehrans long-standing support for al-Qaeda is what always seems to fly under the radar. According to the 9/11 Commission, Iran helped the 9/11 hijackers before the attack. And after the US invaded Afghanistan, some of al Qaedas top leaders fled to Iran, which refuses to bring them to justice. Therefore, Cruz and McCaul say, any engagement with Iran, such as further negotiations on the Obama-era nuclear deal, must address Tehrans harboring of al-Qaeda members.

Compiled by Seth Mandel

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The media ignores Clinton's Russia ties and other notable comments - New York Post

Since losing the presidential race, Hillary Clinton has kept a low profile. But that may be changing.

In one of her first major public appearances since the election, Clinton will be the featured speaker at a Houston luncheon on April 7 to benefit Annie's List, an organization that works to elect women to public office, officials announced on Monday. The event, which will honor Houston attorney Amber AndersonMostyn, will take place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

The noon luncheon will be preceded by a panel titled"Turning Harris County Blue." Clinton carried Harris County by a 12 percent margin over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race.

Annie's List organizers point out that although women comprise nearly half of the state's population, men hold 80 percent of the seats in the Texas legislature and in Harris County, men hold 70 percent of all public offices.

"Secretary Clinton and Annie's List understand that elections matter. This is why we are thrilled she's giving her time and voice to spend the day with Annie's List to help us build our war chest to elect more Texas women," Annie's List executive director Patsy Woods Martin said in a statement.

The luncheon is close to selling out, organizers said, but some tables are available, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

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Hillary Clinton reemerges with plans to headline Houston fundraiser - CultureMap Houston

A secret Facebook group sprung up in the final days of the 2016 presidential election, bringing together Hillary Clinton supporters who simply wanted to champion their candidate among fellow enthusiasts.

Now numbering just under four million members, Pantsuit Nation is a space for progressive women and their allies to share personal stories many uplifting, others heartbreaking in a nation divided under President Donald Trump.

Its easy to get hopeless as supporters of Secretary Clinton, as liberals and Democrats, (and) to feel alone, founder Libby Chamberlain told AFP.

We have so many members who live in communities or families where they dont have like-minded individuals... they cant go next door to commiserate with the neighbour about whats happening at the national level, but they can go to this space online.

The 33-year-old runs Pantsuit Nation from a spare bedroom in her home in tiny Brooklin, Maine, a coastal town of 800 residents primarily known for boat-building.

She started the Facebook group on October 20, while working two part-time jobs at nearby high schools. Her idea was to encourage Clinton supporters to wear pantsuits the Democratic former secretary of states go-to outfit to the polls on November 8.

Overnight, the group ballooned to 24,000 people as members added friends, who then added their friends. By November 5, Pantsuit Nation had grown to a million members, reaching 3.1 million by the end of Election Day.

Pantsuit Nation founder Libby Chamberlain (AFP Photo)

Photos of exuberant pantsuit-clad women at polling sites quickly gave way to posts brimming with anger and despair following Trumps electoral win.

These days, Pantsuit Nations content centres around Trumps conservative agenda, with members describing the real-life effects of his moves to restrict immigration, tear up health care laws or remove protections for transgender people.

I think there is a hunger in this country for personal stories that humanize the impact of policy that is happening at the national, state and local level, Chamberlain said.

It feels immediate and human and it allows people to hold onto something, she said.

Double whammy

Darla Barar, a 30-year-old marketing copywriter in Austin, Texas, wrote on Pantsuit Nation about her late-term abortion and voiced opposition to a measure in Congress seeking to define human life as beginning at fertilization.

This bill really hit us hard because the wording is such that it would essentially put a ban on IVF procedures as well as abortion, said Barar. It was a double whammy for us.

She was expecting twins, conceived through IVF, when a scan at the midpoint of her pregnancy revealed one of her daughters had grave issues including a neural tube defect that was allowing brain matter to leak out of her skull.

If the baby she and her husband Peter had already named Catherine survived delivery, she would have been severely disabled, if not a vegetable. Meanwhile, the growth of Catherines amniotic sac was restricting that of her twin, Olivia, putting both babies in danger.

Barar ultimately decided to abort Catherine to give Olivia a better chance of being born healthy.

On June 22 at 3:30 pm, the doctor let us see and hear Cate one last time. I remember she danced for us. And then, guided by ultrasound, the doctor injected a medication into Cates heart, stopping it. When they checked for a heartbeat 30 minutes later, the silence was deafening. And then they found Olivias strong beating heart and we cried. We cried for Olivias survival and for Cates loss, our loss, Olivias loss, she wrote in Pantsuit Nation.

Ours is the story of late-term abortion. We are the issue that pro-birthers debate without knowing, without having been there.

Olivia was born healthy and is now five months old.

Future impact?

Chamberlain, who said she has not profited from Pantsuit Nation, is in the process of establishing it as a non-profit group, giving it a structure to grow outside of Facebook.

She hopes to hire three or four employees soon to replace some of her 65 volunteers, who in addition to running the Facebook page and other social media platforms also support 20 local Pantsuit Nation chapters that formed organically post-election.

Chamberlain is also editing a Pantsuit Nation book, due out on May 9, which has drawn a fair amount of criticism by some who allege that she is selling the stories of others.

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She defends herself, saying the people featured are enthusiastic about being included and that her ultimate goal, which she says may be naive and impossible, is for the book to find its way to people who may never be part of the Facebook group.

I want to create change and facilitate dialogue and push Pantsuit Nation as far as I can in terms of changing future elections, she said.

Its a crucial time for Pantsuit Nation, as keeping grassroots organizations going can be very challenging, said Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College.

Telling those stories is important and a lot of people have those stories. They can continue to do that but that wont have political impact unless its accompanied by an agenda and a strategy for accomplishing specific political goals, she said.

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Pantsuit Nation, a pro-Hillary Clinton group, draws women together in divided US - Hindustan Times

The Gender of Incremental Leadership Inside Higher Ed University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan and U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have a similar leadership style, writes Charlie Tyson, and public reaction to it says a good deal about how our society pigeonholes women with power.

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The Gender of Incremental Leadership - Inside Higher Ed